Deukmejian Gets on Board

Pending negotiations on health insurance between Gov. George Deukmejian and leaders of the Legislature are, in effect, the last opportunity for Sacramento to address a problem too long neglected. A growing coalition of Californians is ready with an expansive and constructive initiative for the November, 1990, general election if they fail.

Deukmejian has moved into the controversy in the face of two pieces of legislation that offer complementary corrections of the failure in the state to provide any form of health insurance to an estimated 5 million persons. The governor must also feel a mounting pressure for him to assume some leadership on health issues after the understandably harsh criticism of his budget vetoes of public-health and mental-health funding for the 1989-90 budget year.

Part of the problem has been created by the negativism of the California Chamber of Commerce and the passivity of the California Business Roundtable, in contrast to other parts of the country where business leaders are seeking solutions to the problem. The failure of California businessmen to respond is even more perplexing given the evidence that it is they, through payroll-funded health insurance, who must pick up more and more of the cost of the uninsured.

The Assembly has now approved two useful bills, AB 350, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) and AB 328, by Assemblyman Burt Margolin (D-Los Angeles). Brown’s bill would mandate employer-funded health insurance, which would extend coverage to half or more of those not now covered. Margolin’s bill is broader, creating a state insurance plan to underwrite subsidized state insurance for lower-income persons and assure universal coverage.

Margolin’s bill is, in general, a preview of an initiative being drafted by the Health Access Foundation. The growing coalition now includes many major health-consumer groups. The California Assn. of Hospitals and Health Systems is actively participating and the California Medical Assn., while basically supporting the Brown bill, is also joining the talks. Most conspicuous by its absence from the consultations is the Chamber of Commerce.

We have no doubt that a legislative remedy is preferable to traveling the initiative route. But we are also convinced that the patience of Californians is running out. The coalition working on an initiative has the breadth and sense of responsibility to offer a useful alternative if the governor and the Legislature once again fail to produce.